5 Useful And Lesser Known Firefox Secrets!

Firefox has a massive worldwide user base, second only to Google Chrome.

Mozilla’s Firefox internet browser is quite popular amongst open source lovers. The browser is fast, easy-to-use and provides tons of useful features. Interestingly though, while many use this free browser on a regular basis, few of us know how easy Firefox can actually become. These are five lesser known features that people seem to miss usually.

1. Smart Keywords: When you go to a website with a search bar, you can simply right click on the bar and click ‘Add Keywords for this search’. This lets you create a smart keyword. Doing this, you can run searches on any website from the browser’s address bar directly.

2. Multiple homepages: Yes, you don’t have to have just one homepage. You can easily open multiple home pages. Open the Options tab in Firefox and click General. Locate the ‘Homepage’ bar and instead of putting a single website there, use the pipe operator (|) to separate the websites that you want. So, put down — http://www.google.com| http://www.facebook.com| http://www.efytimes.com. All three sites will open whenever you open Firefox.

3. Bookmarking RSS feeds: There are many websites that you may be checking frequently. For this, you can use a nifty feature from Firefox. All you have to do is right click on the Firefox toolbar, click on Customise and then drag and drop the RSS logo into the toolbar. Then you open the website that you regularly open and click on the RSS logo to add the RSS Feed bookmark. It will keep updating itself.

4. Take Firefox with you: You can install Firefox onto an USB drive and take it wherever you go. This ensures that you don’t have to change the settings whenever you use Firefox on a different computer. Here’s how.

5. Keyboard shortcuts: Firefox has an array of keyboard shortcuts that allow you to browse the internet much faster. The open source browser allows users to easily toggle between tabs, re-open closed tables and start private browsing. In addition, Firefox also has mouse gestures, although they aren’t quite near the elegance presented by Apple’s Mac OS X. You can find the shortcuts and gestures here and here respectively. 

Google Keeps ‘Vast Majority’ Of Motorola Mobility Patents In Sale To Lenovo

Motorola Mobility is being sold to Lenovo, in a deal worth $2.91B. Google is divesting itself of the handset division it purchased for $12.5B in 2011, but it will keep some of the assets — including patents.

“Google will maintain ownership of the vast majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio, including current patent applications and invention disclosures,” says Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside. “As part of its ongoing relationship with Google, Lenovo will receive a license to this rich portfolio of patents and other intellectual property. Additionally Lenovo will receive over 2,000 patent assets, as well as the Motorola Mobility brand and trademark portfolio.”

When Google purchased Motorola Mobility, much of the discussion swirled around whether it was buying it simply to own a hardware pipeline on which to deliver its Android juice — or whether it wanted patents for protection. The answer, as is typical, lay somewhere in the middle. Though the Motorola patents never turned out to by incredibly effective winning solo battles against Google’s patent enemies, they did work as a part of a larger tactic which has seen Google aligning itself via cross-licensing with OEMs like Samsung.

One segment of the statement today by Woodside was interesting:

Since being acquired by Google in 2012, Motorola has transformed itself, focusing on solving real consumer problems and providing amazing experiences built on a foundation of pure Android. The result has been Moto X, Moto G, and a reinvigorated Droid line. Together, these devices have won over consumers and critics alike and helped re-establish the Motorola brand around the world.

Indeed, Google’s purchase and investments in Motorola did raise the flagging manufacturer’s profile significantly over the intervening years. They have several well-received smartphones on the market and have made a lot of noise about technology innovations in wearable computing and DARPA-think-tank-director hires.

Google sold off several aspects of its initial Motorola purchase including its cable box business. And it managed to leverage the patents — which Google valued at $5.5B — to at least some positive outcome. So, while the monetary ‘wins’ or ‘losses’ here are one for the bean counters to figure out, the strategic victories for Google may actually be fairly strong. According to some maths from analyst Benedict Evans, Google’s total outlay may have been closer to $7.15B than $12B — the divestitures, retention of patents and the sale price would cut the plain monetary loss down further to under $2B.

There is now a renewed Android vendor on the market peddling Google’s OS, in the care of Lenovo, the logistics firm that made IBM’s old enterprise business the biggest consumer computer retailer in the world. And it has some new cross-licensing agreements on patents — the majority of which it gets to keep.

And, with the purchase of Nest, it has a fresh young hardware company with a design focus and a set of high-profile talent.

“As a side note, this does not signal a larger shift for our other hardware efforts,” noted Google CEO Larry Page in an announcement today. “The dynamics and maturity of the wearable and home markets, for example, are very different from that of the mobile industry. We’re excited by the opportunities to build amazing new products for users within these emerging ecosystems.”

It may look bad in the raw math, but may not turn out so bad for all parties when the pieces settle into place.

Lenovo To Buy Motorola Mobility From Google For $2.91 Billion

CodeKill Group has confirmed reports that Lenovo is buying Motorola Mobility from Google. This is the division within Google that the company purchased in 2011 for $12.5 billion. Motorola Mobility will go to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.
Of that $2.91 billion, $1.41 billion will be paid at the close of the deal. $660 million will be comprised of US cash and $750 million in Lenovo ordinary shares. The remaining $1.5 billion will be paid in the form of a three-year promissory note.
Google will maintain ownership of the vast majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio. Lenovo will still receive 2,000 patent assets and the Motorola Mobility brand and trademark.
According to a separate report published by Reuters, Lenovo is being advised by Credit Suisse Group while Lazard Ltd advised Google on the transaction.
“As part of Lenovo, Motorola Mobility will have a rapid path to achieving our goal of reaching the next 100 million people with the mobile Internet. With the recent launches of Moto X and Moto G, we have tremendous momentum right now and Lenovo’s hardware expertise and global reach will only help to accelerate this,” said Dennis Woodside, CEO, Motorola Mobility, in a released statement.
According to our source, Google wanted to dump the asset for some time. The company had to hold off selling the division for tax reasons.
Motorola Mobility’s performance has yet to live up to its purchase price. Since Motorola split and its consumer division went to Google, it has been a constant source of red ink. Motorola lost quite a lot of money: $248 million in the last quarter alone. Google sums this well, noting that the loss was “-21% of Motorola Mobile segment revenues.” Motorola lost $192 million in the year-ago quarter, so the trend here isn’t positive.
Google previously sold off the cable box division of Motorola Mobility for $2.4 billion.
This comes just weeks after Google purchased the hot hardware startup Nest. Since then, Nest’s role in the budding conglomerate that Google is turning into has been widely speculated about. With Motorola gone, Nest’s superstar team that includes many former Apple engineers seemingly has an empty playground.
It seems this complete’s Lenovo’s quest for an established cell phone business. It was rumored back in October that the company submitted a bid for BlackBerry. That deal clearly didn’t pan out.
Simply buying its way to the top worked for Lenovo in the past. In 2005 Lenovo purchased IBM’s personal computer division for $1.25 billion. That purchase alone caused Lenovo to be the world’s third-largest computer maker. But, using the established brand, Lenovo scaled the PC division to become the largest shipper of PCs in the world. In the last months of 2013 Lenovo overtook HP.
Just last week, Lenovo announced a plan to buy IBM’s x86 server business for $2.3 billion.
As the dust settles on this deal, it’s clear that Google took a large loss on its venture with Motorola Mobility. Google acquired an established brand with a vast portfolio of patents, a mature distribution system and a knowledgeable manufacturing arm. Even after pouring money and resources into the historic American brand, Google couldn’t make lemonade with Motorola. Maybe Lenovo, the now-leader in personal computers, will have better luck.
More as we get it.

Flipkart in merger talks with Myntra

India’s two most popular e-commerce retailers, Flipkart and Myntra are in talks to merge, a leading newspaper revealed on Thursday.

A report published by The Times of India suggested that decision on the deal propelled by common investors is expected to be taken in two weeks.

“This potential consolidation play at work would progress only if Flipkart and the two common investors address concerns of the Myntra promoters and the smaller investors. Tiger and Accel together own 53% shares, while IDG Ventures and Kalaari have a combined stake of 28%. Bansal owns 9% leaving the rest with other cofounders and staff. In Flipkart, the two common investors (Tiger & Accel) together hold around 40%,” The Times of India report said.

As per the offer, Flipkart wants to keep Myntra as a separate unit.

Flipkart is an online shopping website popular for products like books, electronics, stationery supplies, and lifestyle. By merging with Myntra, online retailer of fashion and casual lifestyle products, Flipkart can expand its online shopping experience to customers.

Flipkart aims to achieve $1 billion sales by next year.  It raised $360 million last year from investors including Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, Belgium-based investment firm Sofina, and Vulcan Capital.

Myntra, one of India’s biggest online clothing retailers has been in talks with various investors to raise around $50 million, including Azim Premji’s PremjiInvest.

As competition heats up in India’s growing online market, if Flipkart and Myntra agree to merge, Jabong, Amazon and Snapdeal will be seen battling for market share.

When compared to China’s $200 billion market for online sales, India’s $3.1 billion e-commerce market is anticipated to grow by seven times to $22 billion in five years, according to Hong Kong based investment bank CLSA forecasts.

10 Useful Ubuntu Tips For Linux Users!

Linux users can make their experience with Ubuntu much more enjoyable by following these tips.


  Linux users can look forward to finding some useful tips in the article below. If you are fond of using Linux, you must try your hands on these and make the most of your open source distro.






1. Getting very fast and clever at the command line –

Keyboard shortcuts and other command line tricks can be used for entering commands in an easy and fast way. Here are some keyboard shortcuts you can make use of within the terminal:

Ctrl-a Move to the start of the line.
Ctrl-e Move to the end of the line.
Alt-] x Moves the cursor forward to the next occurrence of x.
Alt-Ctrl-] x Moves the cursor backwards to the previous occurrence of x.
Ctrl-u Delete from the cursor to the beginning of the line.
Ctrl-k Delete from the cursor to the end of the line.
Ctrl-w Delete from the cursor to the start of the word.
Ctrl-y Pastes text from the clipboard.
Ctrl-l Clear the screen leaving the current line at the top of the screen.
Ctrl-x Ctrl-u Undo the last changes. Ctrl-_
Alt-r Undo all changes to the line.
Alt-Ctrl-e Expand command line.
Ctrl-r Incremental reverse search of history.
Alt-p Non-incremental reverse search of history.
!! Execute last command in history
!abc Execute last command in history beginning with abc
!n Execute nth command in history
^abc^xyz Replace first occurrence of abc with xyz in last command and execute it

2. Launching Ubuntu Linux Applications with keyboard –

There are two ways to do this:
• Using applications like Launchy or Gnome-Do which make it easier to launch applications by typing a few characters of the application’s name.
• You can summon gconf editor (Alt+F2 then type gconf-editor and hit enter), and navigate to apps > metacity > global_keybindings, double clicking on any of the run_command_N and typing in the keyboard shortcut you want to assign to an application then make a mental note of the number N. Then go to apps > metacity > keybinding_commands and double clicking on command_N (N being the number you used above) and type in the command you want to run. As an example if you want to run Firefox you need to simply type in Firefox.

3. Starting from wherever you left off –

You can have Ubuntu remember the applications that were open when you last logged out. This will permit you to log in and find all those applications running from where you left off. You can attain this by going to System > Preferences > Startup Applications, then go to the options tab and check “Automatically remember running applications when logging out”

4. Creating a Separate Ubuntu Linux Home Partition –

Latest versions of Ubuntu are coming every 6 months. Even though you can upgrade to the latest version through the update manager, at times the upgrade doesn’t function as expected so certain users like to do a fresh clean install. The drawback of this is that you will lose data that was there in the home directory. For overcoming this, you can make a separate Home partition while you are installing Ubuntu, size it according to your needs and then when you decide to install Ubuntu subsequently, simply specify this partition as the Home partition (by choosing /home as the mount point).

5. Updating and Installing Ubuntu Linux Software Minus Internet Connection –

There are several ways of doing this. The easiest way is to use APTonCD. APTonCD permits you to make CDs and DVD’s that contain all the packages you want. You can use it to install software on computers minus an Internet connection.

6. Installing new fonts, Microsoft fonts and improving font rendering –

There are not many choices to opt from in Ubuntu. But you can readily install new fonts including those from Microsoft like Arial, Verdana, impact and a lot more. You can utilize varied sites for searching the kind of font you are looking for.

7. Using PPAs, Installing latest versions of software –

There are several steps that a software has to undergo before it becomes part of Ubuntu or becomes available through the Ubuntu repositories. As all those steps offer additional stability, it generally implies you don’t get the latest versions of all the software as soon as they are released. For getting cutting edge, you can search for Personal Package Archives for your favorite software on Launchpad and adding those to your installation’s software sources.

8. Be the root –

The root account is disabled by default on Ubuntu installations primarily to stop you from doing something you had not intended to do. But if you are careful you can enable root account as follows:

1. Type sudo passwd root and provide a root password.
2. Then head on over to System > Administration > Login Window, go to the Security tab and check “Enable local system administrator login”

You should now be able to login as root from the Login prompt. Alternatively you can use “sudo su” for providing your password and get root prompt.

9. Shortening booting time with profiling –

Ubuntu Linux developers have done a fantastic job with the boot time. Jaunty is quick and Karmic even quicker. But there is a bit more you can do by profiling your boot. Profiling allows Ubuntu to create a list of all the files that are accessed during bootup, it then sorts the files based on how they are stored on your hard disk. This will allow your system to get booted and the files read quicker the next time you boot.

For profiling boot you should follow these steps

* At the grub menu highlight the kernel you boot most often.
* Press e for edit.
* Select the line starting with kernel and press e again. Now add the word profile to the end of this line. Hit Enter and then press b to boot

10. Trying out various Ubuntu Linux Desktop Environments and Desktop Managers –

If you are on the lookout for something different than the default Gnome interface, you can check out other desktop managers you can utilize. In case of a complete Desktop Environment you may want, KDE4 has come a long way and is usable and fun. You can do a “sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop” to get KDE. 

Has Your Gmail Account Been Compromised? Here’s How You Can Find Out!

Gmail’s inbox tools can come to your rescue! 

Hacks and leaks have been on a considerable rise lately. Therefore, if you’re one of those who constantly worry about your email account being hacked, it’s not like you’ve grown overtly paranoid or need to see a doctor for that matter. It is indeed a tough life out there online, with the numerous vigilante hacker groups and the NSA snooping, the chances of your email being compromised are ‘high’. However, if you have a Gmail account, you can at least check when and how you’ve been hacked!

Here’s how to know if your Gmail account has been hacked:

1. Log into your Gmail account using a desktop browser.

Scroll down to the bottom of your inbox and locate a link called ‘Details’.

3. Clicking on ‘Details’ will open a pop-up window that will show you a detailed list of the last ten times you (or anyone else, for that matter) has accessed your account.

4. It will show you how your account was viewed (whether it was opened using an email app, browser, smartphone app etc) apart from showing the time and the IP address through which it was accessed.

5. Change your password in case of suspicious activity.

Further, turning the two-factor authentication system ‘on’ will ensure greater security. 

Free E-Books And Video Tutorials On WordPress!

Want to make your own website? These resources should help! Being one of the most popular content management systems, learning the WordPress CMS is pretty useful. If you’ve been having troubles with it, then these tutorial videos and books should help. Stay tuned to EFYTimes for more, we’ll have more coming soon! Video Tutorials 1. How to Use WordPress – Introduction 2. WordPress Tutorial | Properly Make A Website With WordPress | Step-By-Step Video Training 3. WordPress Tutorial For Beginners 4. WordPress Posts & Pages Tutorial – How To Work with WP Pages & Posts 5. eCape WordPress Tutorials (Playlist) Books 1. Alpha Publishing The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress 2. Alpha Publishing The Complete Idiot’s Mini Guide to Creating Your Own WordPress.com Blog 3. Apress Beginning WordPress 3 4. Apress Building Online Communities with Drupal, phpBB and WordPress 5. Course Technology Getting Started with WordPress, Design Your Own Blog or Website 6. CreateSpace Publishing WordPress and Ajax, An In-Depth Guide on Using Ajax with WordPress 7. DigWP Publishing Digging into WordPress 8. OReilly Head First WordPress 9. Packt Publishing WordPress 2.7 Complete

UK Government Leaves Microsoft Office For Open Source Technology!

In yet another blow to the proprietary technology and boost to open source tech, UK government has now given up on Microsoft’s Office and is resorting to open source alternatives. The move has come in order to restrict expenditure and put an end to ‘oligopoly’ in the IT market. According to reports, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude is working to outline plans, to make the desired shift from Microsoft Office to free productivity software such as OpenOffice and Google Docs. Maude shared an update on the plans at a cross-government event. UK government will save millions after this shift as the country has spent over £200 million on Microsoft’s ubiquitous software suite in the last three years. Maude said, “We know the best technology and digital ideas often come from small businesses but too often in the past they were excluded from government work. In the civil service there was a sense that if you hired a big multi-national, who everyone knew the name of, you’d never be fired. We weren’t just missing out on innovation, we were paying top dollar for yesterday’s technology.”

The government believes that this will put an end to the ‘oligopoly’ amongst suppliers of technologies. Maude said, “The software we use in government is still supplied by just a few large companies. A tiny oligopoly dominates the marketplace. I want to see a greater range of software used, so civil servants have access to the information they need and can get their work done without having to buy a particular brand of software. In the first instance, this will help departments to do something as simple as share documents with each other more easily. But it will also make it easier for the public to use and share government information.”

The government is already working in the direction. “We have been talking to users about the problems they face when they read or work with our documents – and we have been inviting ideas from experts on how to solve these challenges. Technical standards for document formats may not sound like the first shot in a revolution […] but be in no doubt: the adoption of compulsory standards in government threatens to break open Whitehall’s lock-in to proprietary formats. In turn we will open the door for a host of other software providers,” he stated.

Warning: Malicious version of FTP Software FileZilla stealing users’ Credentials

Malware code can be very small, and the impact can be very severe! The Antivirus firm AVAST spotted a malicious version of the open source FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software ‘FileZilla‘ out in the wild.

The software is open source, but has been modified by the hackers that steal users’ credentials, offered on various hacked sites for download with banner or text ads.

Once installed, the software’s appearance and functionalities are equal to the original version, so a user cannot distinguish between the fake or real one, and the malware version of the “.exe” file is just slightly smaller than the real one.

“The installed malware FTP client looks like the official version and it is fully functional! You can’t find any suspicious behavior, entries in the system registry, communication or changes in application GUI.”

The only difference is that the malware version use 2.46.3-Unicode and the official installer use v2.45-Unicode, as shown:

“We found a hardcoded connection detail stealer after deeper analysis. Malware authors abuse open source code and add their own stealer function to the main code.“

The modified version copies the login information of the user and sends it to a server that is apparently in Germany, and same IP address of the server hosts three other domains, which are also associated with malware and spam activities.

“Login details are sent to attackers from the ongoing FTP connection only once. Malware doesn’t search bookmarks or send any other files or saved connections,” Avast explains.

This malicious version has been compiled way back in September 2012, and is still detected by just a couple of Antivirus solutions. In the past, Cyber Criminals also used Google Adsense to promote malicious software or the modified open source softwares.

Be Careful when downloading the FileZilla FTP client, such malware could also be employed for spreading more malware. Users are recommended to downloaded the softwares from the official website only.

First widely distributed Android bootkit Malware infects more than 350,000 Devices

In the last quarter of 2013, sale of a Smartphone with ANDROID operating system has increased and every second person you see is a DROID user.

A Russian security firm ‘Doctor Web’ identified the first mass distributed Android bootkit malware called ‘Android.Oldboot‘, a piece of malware that’s designed to re-infect devices after reboot, even if you delete all working components of it.

The bootkit Android.Oldboot has infected more than 350,000 android users in China, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Brazil, the USA and some Southeast Asian countries. China seems to a mass victim of this kind of malware having a 92 % share.

A Bootkit is a rootkit malware variant which infects the device at start-up and may encrypt disk or steal data, remove the application, open connection for Command and controller.

A very unique technique is being used to inject this Trojan into an Android system where an attacker places a component of it into the boot partition of the file system and modify the ‘init’ script (initialize the operating system) to re-load the malware as you switch on your android.

When you start your device, this script loads the Trojan ‘imei_chk‘ (detects it as Android.Oldboot.1) which extract two files libgooglekernel.so (Android.Oldboot.2) and GoogleKernel.apk  (Android.Oldboot.1.origin), copy them respectively in /system/lib and /system/app.

Android.Oldboot acts as a system service and connects to the command-and-controller server using libgooglekernel.so library and receives commands to download, remove installed apps, and install malicious apps.

Since it becomes a part of the boot partition, formatting the device will not solve the problem. The researchers believe that the devices somehow had the malware pre-loaded at the time of shipping from the manufacturer, or was likely distributed inside modified Android firmware. So, users should beware of certain modified Android firmware.

Two weeks ago, Some Chinese Security Researchers have also detected a bootkit called ‘Oldboot‘, possibly the same malware or another variant of it.

“Due to the special RAM disk feature of Android devices’ boot partition, all current mobile antivirus products in the world can’t completely remove this Trojan or effectively repair the system.“

“According to our statistics, as of today, there’re more than 500, 000 Android devices infected by this bootkit in China in last six months.

The Android malware Android.Oldboot is almost impossible to remove, not even with formatting your device. But if your device is not from a Chinese manufacturer, then chances that you are a victim of it, are very less.

This bootkit is not the first of this kind. Two years back, in the month of March we reported, NQ Mobile Security Research Center uncovered the world’s first Android bootkit malware called ‘DKFBootKit‘, that replaces certain boot processes and can begin running even before the system is completely booted up.

But Android.Oldboot malware is a bit more dangerous because even if you remove all working components of it from your android successfully, the component imei_chk will persist in a protected boot memory area and hence will reinstall itself on next boot and continuously infect the Smartphone.

Users are recommended to install apps from authorized stores such as Google Play, disable installation of apps from ‘Unknown Sources’ and for a better security install a reputed security application.

You can also try to re-flash your device with its original ROM. After flashing, the bootkit will be removed.